Federated access

ABSTRACT

A federation system operating in a first enterprise includes a configuration server and a database for creating and storing federation configuration data and a federation registrar having an interface for dealing with a second enterprise seeking to federate. In the system the second enterprise connects to the federation registrar, negotiation takes place concerning details of federation, agreement is reached, configuration is stored in the configuration database, and the second enterprise is then coupled to the first enterprise through a pair of federation proxy interfaces, one at the first enterprise and one at the second enterprise, the proxy interfaces configured by details of the federation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is in the field of work and data sharing, andpertains particularly to federation between business enterprises.

2. Discussion of the State of the Art

At the time of the present patent application federation is becomingmore common in certain business communications, such as instantmessaging. Federation allows members of more than one enterprise toshare information with one another, usually to a limited extent, andoften, as in the case of instant messaging, to monitor contact presenceacross enterprise boundaries.

Typically, federated systems are set up explicitly, and are limited inscope. For example, members of various enterprises who may jointlyparticipate in a relatively complex project may wish to shareinformation about the project with one another using some commoncommunications program, such as Microsoft Office Communicator. In such afederated project specific members of each enterprise may grant oneanother permission to “see” each other (presence), and they may agree onwho gets to share what information, for example certain members may belimited to information from a designated shared folder.

It is not common in federation at the time of this application that suchrelationships may enjoy any sort of transitivity. That is, if one membergrants another permission to monitor her presence, she is not grantingpermission for others to monitor her presence, and in fact the softwarewill not permit it. Each person, or an administrator acting on behalf ofa group of people within the administrator's enterprise, explicitlyestablishes each one-to-one sharing relationship.

Such control is crucial in normal business communications, and is alsoquite common in consumer communications, since privileges granted to aparticular person are in general not assumed to be transferable. Infact, one can generally say that in the art, federated enterprisearchitectures are tightly controlled for sharing specific data orfunctionality according to specific rules among a group of predefinedcontacts in member enterprises. Generally there is either a centralizedfederation server that stores a single centralized configurationdatabase for all federated aspects (in the case of process integrationacross enterprise boundaries), or a set of local rules for establishingspecific access rights of individuals or groups in each enterprise for aspecific function (in the case of, for example, instant messaging orcollaboration federation).

The present inventors are aware of circumstances where something muchmore robust than the known architecture of federation is needed. Forexample, in customer service, such as in contact center situations, itis now common for large enterprises to outsource some or all of theirsimpler customer contacts while retaining control of more complexcontacts. Furthermore, it is often the case that a contact that startswith a customer or client in one enterprise might require transfer to asecond enterprise or even a third enterprise before the customer's needsare met.

As an example of unmet need in the art, in many cases mobile phoneinsurance is provided by specialized insurance providers on behalf ofmobile carriers. When a consumer has lost a mobile phone, they oftenhave a single number to call, which is printed on their bill. When theycall that number, they are likely to be speaking to a customer servicerepresentative (CSR) from the insurance company, even though the CSR mayanswer the phone as if he worked for the mobile phone company. Theinsurance CSR can handle the lost phone report, can verify if the phonehas been used since its last known use by its proper owner, and arrangefor shipment of a new phone (and collection of any charges due for theseservices). But the insurance company CSR is unlikely to be able to beable to answer questions about changing the mobile phone contract, whichneed might commonly arise in such a situation. In this case, the callwould need to be transferred to a CSR who works for the mobile phonecompany. Quite often consumers in such situations are simply given a newnumber to call, or they are cold transferred to the phone company'scontact center with no attached data indicating what has taken placebetween the consumer and the insurance company CSR. In this well-knowncase, the consumer finds herself repeating much of what was said before.

The previous example gets even more complex when outsourcers arefactored in. It may well be that the phone company sends callstransferred from the insurance company to an outsourced contact centerover which it has little control. Moreover, as the outsourcing industrymatures in countries like India, it is more common for outsourcers tothemselves outsource some portion of their own traffic to yet smalleroutsourcers. Larger outsourcers in principle centers such as Bangaloreor Mumbai enjoy strong relationships with their client base, but sufferfrom increased labor costs as the rapid development of their homeregions causes skilled labor shortages and wage increases. Such largeoutsourcers are tapping into emerging outsourcing hubs such asuniversity towns like Pune, or other English-speaking countries such asMauritius.

So, it is clear that there do exist, primarily in the business world,quite complex inter-relationships between enterprises, and in theserelationships it is quite common for there to be clumsy and difficulttransitions in communications between the enterprises involved andcustomers or clients of those enterprises. What is needed is afederation customer service architecture that does not require explicit,point-to-point links to be configured in advance, and that allows arobust transitivity model to emerge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventors in the present case, having experience in work federation,especially in the area of contact center technology, have considered theproblems, limitations and unmet needs in the current art, and haveenvisioned and developed new and novel apparatus and methods forenhancing the functions of federation, providing federation withtransitivity and many other functions heretofore not available in theart.

In one embodiment a federation system operating in a first enterprise isprovided, comprising a configuration server and a database for creatingand storing federation configuration data and a federation registrarhaving an interface for dealing with a second enterprise seeking tofederate. In this system the second enterprise connects to thefederation registrar, negotiation takes place concerning details offederation, agreement is reached, configuration is stored in theconfiguration database, and the second enterprise is then coupled to thefirst enterprise through a pair of federation proxy interfaces, one atthe first enterprise and one at the second enterprise, the proxyinterfaces configured by details of the federation.

In another aspect of the invention a federation method is providedcomprising steps of (a) a second enterprise connecting to a firstenterprise through a federation registrar at the first enterprise; (b)negotiating details of federation between the first and the secondenterprise; (c) storing details of the federation in a configurationdatabase by a configuration server; and (d) coupling the first and thesecond enterprise through a pair of federation proxy interfaces, one atthe first enterprise and one at the second enterprise, the federationproxy interfaces configured by details of the federation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a federation architecture in an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are two different diagrams illustrating how federationworks in embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Most federated arrangements, at the time of this filing, are still beingconducted in a point-to-point, explicitly configured way today, just asdescribed in the background section above for known federationarchitecture. Partly this is due to management preferences andimmaturity of the market, but there are also technical challenges. Theinventors believe it should be possible ideally to allow very flexibleand dynamic federated communities of enterprises to serve rapidlychanging market needs, and this is an object of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a federation architecture in an embodiment of thepresent invention, wherein large enterprises A, B and C may each uselarge outsourcers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, who may in turn use smalleroutsourcers a . . . h, some of which use freelancers or prosumers 1 . .. 8. Prosumers are consumers who are also producers, acting as workersor customers depending on the context. It is true in federated projectsthat contacts (or by extension, work, communications or information ofany kind) might also flow sideways between large enterprises, such asshown in our mobile phone example, and also perhaps sideways at anylevel in the hierarchy.

The number of situations where a new sort of federation would be usefulis very large. Consider the insurance industry, for example, which ischaracterized by many independent agents, some of whom represent morethan one insurer depending on the type of insurance needed, manyspecialty insurers who sell and service their policies through largerhorizontal insurers often invisibly to the insured, and complexstate-dependent licensing requirements. It is definitely desirable toprovide an arrangement for cooperation which would allow insurers toflexibly construct federated architectures that allow the insurers totake advantage of availability of many different kinds of marketparticipants. For example, home-officed agents could take overflowcontact center calls when not scheduled for appointments. Third partyinsurers could step up to handle common tasks for policies they don'tnormally service during times of crisis. Outsourcers could compete fortraffic in a dynamic way based on real-time traffic dynamics, giving theinsurer to surge capacity as required without every carrying excesscapacity itself.

Providing such an architecture and federation quickly stretches thecapabilities of existing federated architectures beyond the breakingpoint. Outsourcers and freelancers cannot typically service customerswithout access to at least some customer data, yet this data isextremely sensitive and subject to widely varying legal requirements fordata protection and privacy. From an outsourcer's perspective, they maywant to utilize the same CSRs to serve customers of different clientsthroughout the day as conditions evolve and, in situations where theclients allow outsourcers to compete for business, they want to keepoperational visibility into their contact center to a minimum in orderto preserve their ability to negotiate price effectively. And, asenterprises become more interdependent, and as online modes ofcommunication and business process execution become more prominent, anability to react quickly to sudden changes in demand, or in the supplyof resources capable of meeting that demand, the importance of allowingoperational managers to quickly reconfigure their service architecturesis crucial.

A federated customer service architecture in an embodiment of thepresent invention requires an ability to control access to data andcommunications infrastructure (and to work, including customer contacts)intelligently, flexibly and with assurance that unauthorized access willbe prohibited. In principle, it is desirable that unknown third partiesmay join the federation if they are able to meet entrance requirements,which may be formalized. The degree and sorts of data third parties canprovide to satisfy the need for ensuring security and quality determinesthe degree of access to be allowed. Additionally, it is important thatthe transitivity of relationships be an integral part of the federationaccess infrastructure, so that members of the federation know what theycan and cannot pass on to others.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are two different diagrams illustrating how federationworks in various embodiments of the present invention. Referring firstlyto FIG. 2, federation elements are shown for an Enterprise A (201),identified as H&R Block, a well-known provider of tax services. Inenterprise A configuration server 203 handles configuration andregistration issues, and stores data relative to rules, entities of theenterprise, relationships between members, contact names, transferauthorizations, et al. in database 204. A federation registrar function202 is an interface for new candidates, such as potential new member209, identified as to become a part of a federation including enterpriseA. Two interfaces 205 and 206 labeled Federation Proxy are shown in theH&R Block enterprise, and these communicate with other enterprises thatare already a part of the tax service federation, 205 with a FederationProxy 207 for an Enterprise B, and 206 with a Federation Proxy 208 foran Outsource 1.

New Tax Team is a small team of tax specialists who have decided to setup shop and try to participate in tax service federations, one of whichis led by H&R Block. Accordingly, they contact the federation registrarfor H&R Block s shown in FIG. 2. An application for registration mightbe done in a number of different ways, but in one embodiment FederationRegistrar 202 is a web service available via a published API at a knownlocation. In this case New Tax Team has downloaded and installed aFederation Proxy Application, and the registration is attempted throughNew Tax Team's Federation Proxy software application.

Federation proxies in embodiments of the invention are softwareapplications that facilitate exchange of data and communications betweenparticipants in a federated architecture. The proxies allow changes inconfiguration or state to be propagated as required across enterpriseboundaries. In order to originally allow access, however, especially inscenarios where potentially unknown players will be allowed some degreeof access, a publicly known access point is required. This is theFederated Registrar 202 in this example, and could be a website, an API,or even a phone number with a human being or automated voice applicationhandling incoming requests.

In the example of FIG. 2 New Tax Team might download and install a proxyto deal with Federation Registrar 202. Then the proxy (or otherapplication) for New Tax Team contacts Federation Registrar 202 andrequests to participate in the federation. The request will follow aspecific format requiring certain information and data, such as taxprofessional certification numbers, addresses, names, phone numbers ofthe licensed professionals in New Tax Team, and perhaps a link to aState Licensing website (Certification Authority 210) for validation.Federation Registrar 202 needs to ensure that the Federation Proxy ofNew Tax Team is indeed representing the named individuals. This can bedone through a third party, which could allow for authenticatedregistrations by professionals followed by provision of a unique keythat could be passed using secure HTTP or other secure means to theFederation Registrar; the Federation Registrar could then validate thiswith the third party.

The Federation Registrar could require certain unique identifyinginformation regarding each of the professionals, which could then bechecked with the State Licensing system. There are a number of waysknown in the art to accomplish this sort of authentication. One it hasauthenticated the potential new member of the federation, the FederationRegistrar checks via the configuration server (which could be an LDAPserver, an Active Directory server, a Genesys Configuration Server, orthe like) and retrieves relevant rules regarding unsolicited membershiprequests. These could be anything from “don't accept any” to “onlyaccept groups less than 10, with 100% state licensing verification”, andcurrent rules might also provide guidance on what to share aftermembership is granted. For instance, for new members who have not builtup a reputation within the federation, the work and data allowed to bepassed to the new members might only be validation of already-preparedtax forms with taxpayer-identifying information deleted. Alternatively,new members might be allowed to take tax hot line overflow calls untilthey prove themselves, that is, become more trusted over time. The rulescould also allow use of third party certification providers to certifyhigher levels of competency; for instance, if an allowed certificationauthority certified that New Tax Team had 7 professionals with advancedtax counseling and return preparation qualifications, the rules mightallow them to handle full client service immediately.

Once the Federation Registrar has accepted New Tax Team (if that is theresult of the application), and has determined the rules to use with NewTax Team, New Tax Team configuration and its constraints are entered inthe configuration database. The Federation Proxy or other registeringapplication at the New Tax Team is notified by the Federation Registrarthat they were accepted and connection parameters are passed so New TaxTeam can connect to a Federation Proxy Server, such as server 205 or 206within H&R Block.

There are two approaches to initializing configuration for the newmember. In one approach, the Federation Registrar provides an initialconfiguration data dump to the new member, passing to New Tax Teamwhatever is appropriate based on its access levels as determined by therules in the configuration database. In another approach, the FederationRegistrar would do nothing but validate New Tax Team, determine therules to apply, update the configuration database concerning New TaxTeam, and possibly instantiate a new Federation Proxy Server.

Whether a new or existing Proxy Server instance is used, one message theFederation Registrar sends back to New Tax Team is “you're approved andshould contact our Federation Proxy at this address”. When New TaxTeam's Federation Proxy Server establishes first contact with thespecified Federation Proxy Server at H&R Block, it will request andreceive a configuration data dump. This data will tell it what rules itmust abide by. These rules could be anything from the hours when the newmember is eligible to participate, to the maximum income for which it isallowed to process tax returns, to the maximum time it is allowed towork on specific tasks. A special class of rules that can be provided,and in both directions, is the class of data and communicationpropagation rules, such as transitivity rules mentioned earlier. New TaxTeam may state that information concerning its tax professionals may notbe shared outside of the originally contacted enterprise, in this case,H&R Block. New Tax Team may on the other hand state that thisinformation can be freely propagated to other federation members, whichmeans the New Tax Team might get work from Outsource 1 in times when theH&R Block load allowed excess capacity. And similarly the transitivityrules could apply in the other direction. For instance H&R Block couldstipulate that no customer data or work can be sent outside of New TaxTeam under any circumstances.

New Tax Team has joined the federation of H&R Block as described above,but does not desire to be only a part of that single federation, so theyregister as well with Intuit in a separate operation, through theFederation Registrar at Intuit. The process is the same as describedabove for registering with H&R Block.

Assuming now that New Tax Team is accepted by Intuit, and added as amember of the federation at Intuit, FIG. 3 represents an architecturethat might result. New Tax Team has been accepted by both H&R Block(201) and Intuit (301), and each have informed New Tax Team 209 to setup a Federated Proxy (Fed Prox) coupled to a specified Fed Prox at eachof Intuit and H&R Block, as is shown in FIG. 3. H&R Block also hasexisting federation with Outsourcer 1 (302) and Outsourcer 2 (303), andcoupled Fed Prox interfaces for each. Intuit has existing Federatedrelationship with Outsourcer 2 and Outsourcer 3 (304) as shown. SoOutsourcer 2 is a member of both the H&R Block and the Intuitfederation, just as is New Tax Team. Note that each of the H&R Block andIntuit each have a Federated Registrar through which other enterprisesmay join the federation each manages, but the other enterprises in thefederated systems do not.

At the point of acceptance in a federation the new member is ready towork within the federation. However, no one outside of the originalenterprises yet knows about the new resources. Depending on the rules,and the business need, it could be very important for outsourcers 1 and2 to know about tax counselors working for H&R Block (for instance, ifthe outsourcers handle inquiries and need to be able to conference inand share data with the original preparer when customers call in withquestions). To accomplish this, the configuration server evaluates eachchange in configuration and applies access rules to determine whichfederation members require notification of the change(s). In the case ofthe addition of New Tax Team, H&R Block and Intuit might each sendinformation along to their outsourcer partners. This illustrates a noveland unique concept of Federated Access in embodiments of the invention:changes can propagate through enterprises.

In some cases, changes may take place outside the enterprise; forexample, another partner (not shown) of H&R Block may add someadditional service capabilities. These changes would be sent to H&RBlock via a Federation Proxy Server (FPS). The FPS at H&R Block wouldupdate the local configuration server, which would then notifyapplicable FPS' within H&R Block (based on stored rules, as before) ofthe changes. Each FPS would notify its counterpart in other enterprisesof the changes it was specifically notified of (not all changes willpropagate everywhere, only where needed).

One situation that can occur in this federated architecture is collisionof identical notifications that arrive at a particular enterprise bydifferent paths. For instance, the addition of New Tax Team willpotentially arrive at Outsourcer 2 from H&R Block and from Intuit. Andindeed, the data could be different based on different rules applied inthe different tax firms. For instance, “authorized work types” couldarrive from each of the two firms regarding New Tax Team, one setrepresenting the result of H&R Block's rules and the other representingthe result of Intuit's rules. Outsourcer 2's business rules woulddetermine how these different data sets would be handled. In most cases,both sets of authorized work types would be retained, with one beingapplied for H&R Block work and one for Intuit work.

It may happen that OS 2 desires to enter into a direct relationship withNew Tax Team, rather than allowing H&R Block or Intuit to act asintermediary. This can be done if the data about New Tax Team is allowedto propagate through the federation. In this case, OS 2 may initiate adirect pairing of Federation Proxy Servers between New Tax Team and OS2; note that not every member of a federation needs to have a FederationRegistrar, but only those members who plan to allow unsolicitedmembership requests.

There are two modes of propagating state changes, configuration changesand work/data through federations. In one mode, data is pushed to alleligible members as soon as it is generated or received. In other cases,data is pulled by members as needed. In the case of work items, forexample, members such as New Tax Team could send requests for additionalwork (perhaps specifying work type, complexity level, and acceptableprice) to H&R Block and/or Intuit via the paired and coupled FPs. Theserequests could be denied, or met, or partially met. In some cases,members who have work that they wish to source out to the federationcould allow the various eligible members to bid for the work,effectively providing a means for establishing auction-based servicemarkets. Alternatively, the auction could work the other way around; NewTax Team could allow Intuit and H&R Block to compete for its talentedtax advisors. There are as many ways for this to occur as there are waysfor normal commerce to be conducted—reverse auctions, fixed prices,regular auctions, variable price, etc.

FIG. 3 showing New Tax Team in one sense shows two federations; onemanaged by H&R Block and one by Intuit. In fact, there could be anynumber of linked federations, and there is in principle no need of acentralized “federation hoster” entity. There are roles to be played bythird party certifiers (They provide means for validating potential newpartners by trusting neutral third party, which could be a governmentagency, especially when licensing requirements exist), as well as byintermediaries who act as public registrars for many federations andthen propagate new members or member status changes into the applicablefederations based on rules provided by those federations and enforced bythe trusted registrar.

The Federation Access system in embodiments of the present invention, asdescribed above, allows pulling of data as well as work. Thus, when anentity finds itself in need of certain work to handle unexpected volumeor type of work, it can query its neighbors in the federation (thosewith which it has proxy-proxy connections) to seek what it needs. Such aquery could specify qualifications (and certification requirements)needed for the proposed work, the acceptable price or range of prices,the time period during which the work is needed, and so forth. Thisquery can be propagated through one or more federations, if the rules inforce at intermediary locations permit it, until suitable sources areidentified. Based on the degree of restriction of the transitivity rulesin effect, what gets propagated far from the original source is thestatement of need and contact information for a Federation Registrar ora Federation Proxy Server that is “closer to” or “part of” therequesting entity. That is, an immediate neighbor of the requestingentity may offer a Federation Registrar service, and the requestingentity may have a close relationship with relatively open datapropagation rules. So, when a distant third party who is able to providethe requested service but does not have the requisite details to confirmthe “deal” and do the work, it will be able to establish a newProxy-to-Proxy connection with a neighbor, assert its readiness andability to properly meet the need, and ask for the offer to becommunicated. In this way, federations can reconfigure and work can flowas market conditions require, without requiring a single centralizedfederation manager or an “all-or-nothing” set of business rules aboutdata or work propagation.

The examples above describe a situation in which a small enterprise ofpersons skilled in tax matters may seek to partner with largerenterprises engaged in tax services and thus find remunerativeemployment for their skills. In a like manner the larger enterprises arealso enabled by embodiments of the same invention to find otherenterprises, such as the New Tax Team described who may offertax-related services at a lower cost, for example, than the largerenterprise may accomplish on their own, and thus offer an enhancedprofit path for the larger enterprise.

The focused purpose of the enterprises, in this case tax matters, is ofno consequence to the invention. Embodiments of the invention providesimilar advantages in such technical areas as contact centers used bymany enterprises for maintaining contact with, offering services to, andproviding product and service offers (sales) to their customers andclients. In this area a small enterprise seeking registration with alarger enterprise may be required to provide evidence of technicalinfrastructure, such as agent stations, telephone and other messagingservices, as well as competence and training of potential agents thatwould be fielding calls from customers of the larger enterprise. In manycases in the area of service and sales contact centers most services arealready provided by outsourcers allied with the larger enterprise, andthe yet smaller outsourcers would be contracting with the largeroutsourcers for employment.

Emphasis was placed in the description above of the architecture inenterprise premises, both hardware and software, to enable embodimentsof the invention, and in the functions of registration and details ofconnection and cooperation after registration, one important featurebeing ability to pass authorization for presence detection, agentidentification, contact information and the like through one enterpriseto another. This deserves a bit more emphasis here. In conventionalfederation an enterprise makes an alliance with another, say a firstoutsourcer, and as a result, agents of the enterprise and the firstoutsourcer may operate at times as though they are agents of the other,with small, if any distinction. In the case of contact center services,for example, a customer may call in, and be routed to an agent of eitherthe enterprise or the outsourcer with no way of telling there is adifference. Agents of the two may likewise see presence of other agentsof both enterprises as though they were all from one enterprise, andseamlessly transfer calls and messages. However, if the enterprise has aseparate relationship with a second outsourcer, the first alliance andthe second alliance operate as completely distinct service entities,with no economy of scale or sharing of resources, for example.

In embodiments of the present invention the enterprise just describedmay federate with the first outsourcer, and then the second outsourcer,and then operate with both (all three) as a single service entity,assuming agreement by both the first and the second outsourcer. Thefirst outsourcer in this situation, by granting access (perhaps in alimited fashion) to information, data, and presence to the enterprise,also grants the same permissions and authority to the second outsourcer,making it possible for the enterprise to consolidate services.

Referring again to FIG. 1, it is seen that Enterprise B, for example,federates with both outsourcers 3 and 4, and Enterprise C also federateswith outsourcer 4; and outsourcer 4 is seen to federate with g and h,also federated with outsourcer 5. In embodiments of the presentinvention such overlapped and integrated federations are not onlypossible, but encouraged, and new business opportunities and economiesresult.

A procedure was described above with reference to FIG. 2 by which asmall enterprise, such as New Tax Team, might federate with a largerenterprise like H&R Block to gain an influx of remunerative employment.In that federating, limits, pricing, and the like have to be negotiated,agreed to, and then saved as configuration, which then affects theinterfaces between the two enterprises, the interfaces acting in somerespects as filters. There are vastly more features in other embodimentsof the invention. For example, the registrar aspects make it possiblefor small enterprises (outsourcers) to compete for business from thelarger entity. H&R Block in this example might be motivated to outsourceall of their tax work through a bidding process wherein the outsourcersare encouraged to upgrade and economize their services and then bid on aregular basis for all work against similar bids by other outsourcers,and a relatively elaborate system might result including goals,performance against goals, scoring system, and the like to have arelatively constant effect of ensuring that H&R Block gets good work atthe absolutely least cost on an ongoing basis.

In another aspect H&R Block might aggregate work, calculate cost for aprofit goal, and post the work and the price that will obtain the work,and the outsourcers may then, on a first come basis, claim the work. Ofcourse in all such cases performance counts. These and many likearrangements may be made by virtue of the configuration server andsoftware, and the procedures for federation described.

Another aspect of the invention is training An enterprise like H&R Blockmight expand through federation and training, offering training coursesin tax matters, such that a group of not-so-experienced persons mightfederate with H7R Block at a trainee level, being offered training andgradually more complicated work to build into a useful federationpartner. Many opportunities exist in this area.

It should be clear by the above description that there must be at leastsoftware compatibility, and in some cases some hardware compatibility aswell between enterprises for the federation to be possible inembodiments of the invention. In one aspect the software might beproprietary to an enterprise such as H&R Block, and H&R Block mightoffer the software to enterprises that might wish to federate. In thiscase the federation all centers on H&R Block as the controllingenterprise, although the federation could still be far-reaching andcomplicated, with transitivity occurring at several levels. Still,however, the federation will have strict boundaries.

In another aspect the software may be a third-party matter licensedrather freely, or sold and licensed, such that newly formed enterprisesneed not have to install and operate to different federation systems toserve in federation with two or more large entities. There areadvantages, that is, if H&R Block and Intuit, for example, use the sameand compatible software and systems for federation, then more robustfederations like FIG. 3 are possible.

In another aspect a federation broker might be instantiated as a centralservice where candidate federation members could register. The servicecould act either as a directory that can be queried by all federationmembers for other members (potentially with passing filters such asservice type, currently available capacity, SLA offering, supportedcontract models, etc.); or it could be set up as an active broker makingdecisions about the best fit between service requesting and serviceoffering federation members. In this aspect individual enterprises in afederation might not have a federation registrar, with the brokermatching and enabling members of federations.

Another aspect of federation membership is the Service Level Agreement(SLA) related processing mode: A federation member could act either asan autonomous entity regarding SLA commitments (i.e. its SLA commitmentapplies only to the interaction processing from entering until leavingthe given member); or it could be collaborative where the processing byother federation members is taken into account in order to achieve anoverall SLA goal.

Further to the above a federation member might join a federation withspecific intake control policies. Those policies could be for example:(a) any number of interactions can be sent for processing at any giventime (unrestricted capacity) (b) intake queue with limited concurrentcapacity (comparable to number of phone lines available for atraditional call center where excess calls will get busy signal) (c) thefederation member pulls interactions from an external queue (could beimplemented via “traffic light” indicating when the member is ready toreceive another interaction).

In yet another aspect a federation member might be rated regardingservice quality based on actual processing results. Such rating could beboth federation internal (based on mutual experiences of federationmembers which could be quantified through reporting) or external whereend consumers would provide their feedback (e.g. via a survey, forexample).

In still another aspect there may be a several federationregistrar/broker entities exchanging information about their locallyregistered members. This architecture could be similar to Domain NameServices (DNS) and/or supernodes in peer-to-peer networks.

It will be apparent to the skilled person that there are manyalterations that might be made in the embodiments described abovewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Forexample, a preferable means of communication between enterprises in thefederated architectures described is the well-known Internet network,but that is not limiting. Other network connections might be useful. Forexample, the novel join and authorize federated system taught may beemployed for work groups and departments wholly within an enterprise,and communication might be across a local area network, or a combinationof LANs at several enterprise sites joined over the Internet. Similarfederations might be workable in non-profit and government sectors aswell, and in political parties and religious groups. The invention islimited only by the scope of the claims that follow.

1. A federation system operating in a first enterprise, comprising: aconfiguration server and a database for creating and storing federationconfiguration data; and a federation registrar having an interface fordealing with a second enterprise seeking to federate; wherein the secondenterprise connects to the federation registrar, negotiation takes placeconcerning details of federation, agreement is reached, configuration isstored in the configuration database, and the second enterprise is thencoupled to the first enterprise through a pair of federation proxyinterfaces, one at the first enterprise and one at the secondenterprise, the proxy interfaces configured by details of thefederation.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein communication, workflow anddata exchange is accomplished after federation through the pairedfederation proxy interfaces.
 3. The system of claim 1 whereinconfiguration details include at least agent identities and contactinformation.
 4. The system of claim 3 wherein federation is accomplishedby the first enterprise with two or more second enterprises, and afterfederation configuration details concerning one of the secondenterprises are shared with the other of the second enterprises.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4 wherein the two second enterprises are enabled tofederate, communicate and share work and data directly, rather than onlythrough the first enterprise.
 6. The system of claim 2 wherein workassignments are pushed from the first enterprise to the secondenterprise.
 7. The system of claim 2 wherein work assignments are pulledby the second enterprise from the first enterprise.
 8. The system ofclaim 7 wherein the second enterprise bids on work assignments againstother enterprises.
 9. The system of claim 1 wherein, in negotiating forfederation, a third party certifying authority is consulted.
 10. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein software enabling federation is proprietary tothe first enterprise which retains control for distribution andlicensing.
 11. The system of claim 1 wherein software enablingfederation is acquired and licensed from a third party, other than thefirst or second enterprises.
 12. A federation method comprising stepsof: (a) a second enterprise connecting to a first enterprise through afederation registrar at the first enterprise; (b) negotiating details offederation between the first and the second enterprise; (c) storingdetails of the federation in a configuration database by a configurationserver; and (d) coupling the first and the second enterprise through apair of federation proxy interfaces, one at the first enterprise and oneat the second enterprise, the federation proxy interfaces configured bydetails of the federation.
 13. The method of claim 12 including a stepfor exchanging workflow and data after federation through the pairedfederation proxy interfaces.
 14. The method of claim 12 whereinconfiguration details include at least agent identities and contactinformation.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein federation isaccomplished by the first enterprise with two or more secondenterprises, and after federation configuration details concerning oneof the second enterprises are shared with the other of the secondenterprises.
 16. The method of claim 15 including a step for enablingthe two second enterprises to federate, communicate and share work anddata directly, rather than only through the first enterprise.
 17. Themethod of claim 13 including a step for pushing work assignments fromthe first enterprise to the second enterprise.
 18. The method of claim13 including a step for pulling work assignments from the firstenterprise by the second enterprise.
 19. The method of claim 18 whereinthe second enterprise bids on work assignments against otherenterprises.
 20. The method of claim 12 wherein, in negotiating forfederation, a third party certifying authority is consulted. 21.(canceled)
 22. (canceled)